A note, before we begin:

This is a bit of an experiment, I'll admit - a long series of mostly-short letters back and forth between John and his mystery man (hint: it's Sherlock).

I'm going to be updating this in real time - which means sometimes there will be a small flurry of back-and-forth notes all in one day and sometimes it will be a while between responses. I expect the full series of communications will take at least a few months to play out.

Please feel free to subscribe if you'd like to listen in on John and Sherlock's unlikely courtship :-)

Dear John,

So. Initiating contact on a dating site with a literal "dear John" seems like it would be a bad sign, wouldn't it? I hope you're willing to look past that, because your profile definitely caught my eye and I sincerely hope you're not as boring as most. In particular, you put "friendship" first and "relationship" second and make no mention of your sexual prowess - which puts you in a distinct minority here, as I'm sure you're aware. I find myself, too, in that minority - I'm British by birth, but unfortunately I'm likely to be traveling abroad for several more months, at the least, and a "hookup" (such an awkward word, reminiscent of fishing) is thus not appealing to me.

I will also address the ordinary concerns you might have:

1) I do identify as gay, although I have not been sexually active in quite some time. I'm neither in nor out of the closet; I simply don't often seek out encounters of that nature.

2) I know that some gay men take issue with partners who are bisexual; I am not one of those men.

3) I am generally considered to be attractive, although I will probably not be comfortable sharing pictures of myself for some time, if ever.

4) I am none of the following: unemployed, abusive, financially destitute, stupid, or a convicted criminal. I am, I'm told, an annoying and overbearing prat on occasion, but I expect I should be able to downplay that quite adequately over a typed medium.

I do promise to be an interesting and entertaining long-distance partner, should you choose to write back. All this travel gets lonely and I very much miss both my native London and all the people who live in it.

Please do reply when convenient.

- William